The subject matter herein relates generally to connector systems that connect circuit boards, and more particularly to high density connector assemblies.
Some electrical systems, such as network switches or a computer server with switching capability, include large backplanes or midplanes with several daughter cards, such as switch cards or line cards, plugged into the backplane or midplane. Generally, the line cards bring data from external sources into the system. The switch cards contain circuitry that may switch data from one line card to another. Traces in the backplane interconnect the line cards and the appropriate switch cards. The electrical systems utilize electrical connectors to interconnect the circuit boards defining the cards to the circuit board defining the backplane or midplane. In some applications, the circuit boards defining the cards may be oriented orthogonal to the circuit board defining the backplane or midplane. Typically, one of the electrical connectors is a right angle connector mounted to an edge of one of the cards. The other electrical connector is typically a header connector mounted to the backplane or midplane. Other header connectors may be connected to the backplane or midplane as well, and the backplane or midplane is used to interconnect the pins of the two header connectors. In some systems, the header connectors are mounted to both sides of the backplane or midplane.
Known electrical systems that utilize right angle connectors and header connectors mounted to a backplane of midplane are not without disadvantages. For instance, a large number of switch cards and line cards are typically connected to the backplane or midplane, which increases the overall size of the backplane or midplane. The density of the electrical connectors has an impact on the overall size of the electrical connectors, and thus the overall size of the backplane or midplane. The density may be expressed in terms of the number of signal contacts or pairs of signal contacts per linear inch along the backplane or midplane. While decreasing the spacing between the signal contacts is one way of increasing the density, decreasing the spacing negatively affects the electrical performance of the electrical connector. The amount of undesirable coupling between adjacent signal contacts is based at least in part on the distance between the signal contacts. As such, merely changing the spacing between the signal contacts may not be an effective way to increase the density of the electrical connector, as the electrical connector may not perform adequately.
Thus, providing a high density electrical connector with minimal signal loss remains a challenge.